Pitt and Jolie sue over split claim

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Brad Pitt, right, and Angelina Jolie arrive on the red carpet for the film "Inglourious Basterds", during the 62nd International film festival in Cannes, southern France. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, file)

Celebrity couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have begun legal action against a British tabloid that reported they were going to split, a lawyer acting on their behalf has confirmed.

Keith Schillings, of London-based Schillings lawyers, said in a statement that the couple had begun legal proceedings against the News of The World, a Sunday tabloid and Britain's highest selling newspaper.

He said the newspaper had made "false and intrusive allegations" when it reported on January 24 that Pitt and Jolie had agreed to separate, to divide assets worth £205 million ($US320 million) and had made arrangements regarding the custody of their six children.

Lawyers for the couple lodged a claim at London's High Court on Monday to begin a legal case against the newspaper, Schillings said.

"The News of the World has failed to meet our clients' reasonable demands for a retraction of and apology for these false and intrusive allegations which have now been widely republished by mainstream news outlets. We have advised them to bring proceedings which they have now done," Schillings said.

He also said Sorrell Trope, a high profile divorce lawyer in Los Angeles, had denied claims she had been in contact with the couple, as had been reported.

"I have had no contact from ... Angelina Jolie and/or Brad Pitt," Trope wrote, according to a letter sent to the couple's lawyers and partially quoted in Schillings' statement. "I have never met ... your clients or had any involvement with either of them. The forgoing is true with respect to all other members of this firm."

Hayley Barlow, spokeswoman for the News of The World, declined to comment on the couple's decision to sue the newspaper.

On Sunday, Pitt, 46, and Jolie, 34, attended the Super Bowl in Miami with their 8-year-old son, Maddox. They watched the game together from a private box at Sun Life Stadium.

The couple have ties to New Orleans, the home city of the Saints, who beat the Indianapolis Colts. Pitt and Jolie bought a French Quarter mansion in 2007, the same year Pitt founded the Make It Right organisation to build houses for low-income residents who lost their homes during Hurricane Katrina.